A walk in the dark
by MarcusTullius
Summary: Crack!fic I wrote because someone claimed there are no Dumbledore/Firenze fics; well, now there is one!


**I'm not lying if I'm saying it physically pained me at some points to write this… The things you do for love… Alas, here is the story about the pairing, someone once claimed didn't exist in the world of fanfic. Written out of spite (or love, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes), just so I could prove them wrong! (And maybe I even had fun writing this, but pssst!)**

"The stars shone brightly that evening. You could trace the constellations with your bare eyes, Ursa Major and Minor, Draco, and of course, the brightest of them all, the great wizard Merlin. You would be able to see these constellations in the night sky, if you had any knowledge of astronomy.

Harry Potter, as you well may know, had no such thing. He'd learned the moons of Jupiter and once actually knew the names of some stars and constellations for his astronomy class (only the important ones, though), but looking up and recognizing, what it was, that he was looking at right now: that was Hermione's thing.

No, Harry had never been a stargazer. Still, he appreciated the bright lights that illuminated their way back from tea and biscuits with Hagrid in his hut. With the stars shining and whatnot, it was freezing cold and the three students under Harry's cloak of invisibility hurried back to the warmth of the castle rooms. That is, until Hermione started to notice the night sky. She stopped dead on her track, looking up into the night sky.

"Guys," she said to Harry and Ron, "look, there's Merlin. And Ursa minor. And there, that's Polaris," she raised her hand to trace the constellations with her finger.  
"Did you know, that you can always find Polaris, simply by..."

"Yes, we've heard of that," Ron interrupted her.  
"And Hermione, as interesting as astronomy is" (Ron liked astronomy just as much as Harry did - which meant not at all) "I'd rather not freeze to death outside the forbidden forest... So if you could just...move?!"

"You have no sense for romance at all," Hermione snapped, looking somewhat disgruntled.

Harry, on the other hand wondered what exactly the romantic part of the trio standing in the cold under his cloak hearing Hermione lecture them was, but he figured that everyone had a different understanding of romance. Still, he agreed with Ron that now really wasn't the time for an impromptu astronomy class. They were just about to continue to the castle, when a familiar figure appeared in the darkness.

There, now still a few feet away, in a moment right by their side, was Albus Dumbledore. He was passing the trio, hiding under the cloak, without noticing them, making his steady way into the forbidden forest.  
"Whatever is Dumbledore up to, this time of the night?," Ron asked, quizzically looking at Harry and Hermione.

"Whatever are _we_ up to, this time of the night?!," Hermione shot back, "We best hurry back to the castle, before anyone notices we're gone."

"Hold on," Harry said, a curious look on his face, "we should at least habe a look. Maybe Dumbledore needs our help..."

"I think it is _obvious,"_ Hermione said, carefully emphasizing each word, "that _whatever_ he is up to, Dumbledore certainly doesn't need _our_ help."

Harry and Ron were confused. How did Hermione know for certain, that Dumbledore was just taking a stroll through the forest and was not in grave danger?  
Hermione rolled her eyes at them and then explained to the still puzzled looking boys, that Dumbledore was certainly not on a dangerous mission through the forest , but rather on his way to a date.

"A _what_?"

"A _date_ , Ronald," she stated matter-of-factly.  
"It's when you go out with a person you are interested in; not that _you_ would know anything about that!"

"I know what a date is," Ron shot back, "I just don't understand how you would get the idea that Dumbledore of all people goes on a date in the forbidden forest of all places..."

"Everyone has a different sense of romance, I guess," Harry piped in, not yet fully convinced by Hermione's theory ,which she had based on Dumbledore's fine-looking new cloak and his "giddy as a schoolgirl" behavior.

"So," Ron asked, "should we follow him now or...?"

"Of course not!"

Of course!"

Harry and Hermione shouted at the same time, which left Ron even more confused than he already was.

And while the three students still debated whether or not to follow their headmaster into the forest, Albus Dumbledore, giddy as a schoolgirl, clad into his finest cloak, was on his way to his first date in many, many years.

He'd never intended to fall for someone again. It had just happened, slowly, without him noticing at first; he'd just like watching the stars, he told himself, and the company of the centaur, albeit lovely, was not the main reason for him enjoying the evenings spent together. But then, after a few weeks of denial, he had to face his feeling: he was in love! A strange feeling, new and old at the same time, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time.  
The closer he got to _their_ spot, the faster his old heart started beating. Tonight, he'd decided, tonight he would tell Firenze how he felt.

The centaur was already there, waiting, and when he saw Dumbledore coming through the forest towards him, a smile spread across his face.

"Albus," he greeted the wizard, "the stars told me, you would come at this hour of the night."

"Technically it was me, who told you, via owl," Dumbledore mused, but Firenze ignored that correction.

"It's a beautiful night", the Centaur continued, "the sky is clear, the stars are promising..."

Dumbledore could feel his heart beat even faster and he knew he had to come out with the truth now. Overthinking something never lead to the right choice.

"Firenze, there's something I wanted to talk about with you…"

"I know," the centaur interrupted the old man with a smile.

"The stars have already told me."

Dumbledore was quiet for a moment. There they stood, both gazing at the sky, a comfortable quiet, a lover's quiet.

"And don't you want to know," Firenze broke the silence, "how feel?"

"Oh, but I know already," the old man answered with a smile, looking the centaur in the eyes.

"The stars have told me."

The men smiled at each other. Everything, that's been on their minds lately, was out now, the weight on their backs relieved by five simple words: "The stars have told me."

Harry Potter didn't know how right he'd been for once: Everyone has a different sense of romance, and for Albus Dumbledore and Firenze that meant standing together in the cold of the night in the middle of the forbidden forest, looking at the sky (or each other).

"I know a place," Firenze said suddenly, a sheepish grin on his face.

"I know a place where we can see even more and where there's," he nodded in the direction of Hagrid's hut, where the three students where still debating, "less company."

There it was again, that nervous flutter in his chest. Dumbledore couldn't help but smile.

"Sounds like just the right place, this time of the night. How far is it?"  
The centaur grinned, lowered his legs and gestured towards his back: "Wanna go for a ride?"


End file.
